The Artful Garden by James Van Sweden and Tom Christopher

Van Sweden, the internationally renowned landscape architect, argues that gardening involves more than simply arranging plants: It is an art form on the order of painting, sculpture, or music. Part treatise and part guidebook, The Artful Garden (Random House, $40), shows readers how they can find horticultural inspiration in a Mannerist painting or a favorite jazz album, and its pages are studded with illuminating conversations with notable cultural figures who have designed gardens themselves, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and painter Robert Dash.

Paris has long been regarded as the crème de la crème of diplomatic postings, and Historic Houses of Paris (Flammarion, $95) grants rare access to the sumptuously appointed interiors of the hôtels particuliers that serve as its ambassadorial residences. Essays on each dwelling's history complement the large, detailed photographs of ballrooms, dining rooms, libraries, and gardens, from the Bauhaus-inspired Australian embassy to the Polish ambassador's dizzyingly opulent 18th-century mansion. And then there is the food—British tea cakes, Qatari dates, Argentinean beef asado—that reminds us that diplomats are both national representatives and excellent hosts.

This vibrant catalogue (Prestel, $75) to the Gagosian Gallery's recent knockout retrospective is a must-have for Rauschenberg collectors, casual fans, and newcomers to his work. Nearly 100 color plates present little-seen pieces from all five decades of the artist's varied career, starting with the trash-transforming "combines" of the 1950s, proceeding through the ethereal "Hoarfrost" series of the 70s, and culminating with the bleached-out lithographs of Americana he produced months before his death in 2008. A reprinted 1997 Vanity Fair article by John Richardson and a complete timeline are included as well.

I Was a Dancer by Jacques d'Amboise

In the lively memoir I Was a Dancer (Knopf, $35), d'Amboise describes his boyhood as a 1940s New York street kid in Washington Heights whose mother (aka "the Boss") had to drag him to ballet class to keep him out of trouble. Quickly he proved a natural, dancing for George Balanchine at age eight and steadily rising to become the legendary choreographer's favorite protégé at the New York City Ballet. Colorful personalities abound here, from the quietly demanding Balanchine to his emotionally tempestuous director, Lincoln Kirstein, to the spindly, aristocratic Tanaquil Le Clercq and many other dancers with whom d'Amboise shared the stage. D'Amboise writes lovingly about his wife of 53 years, fellow dancer Carolyn George, about his adventures touring with the company in Europe in the '50s, and most movingly of Balanchine, who made him who he was: "a New York City street boy transformed by the art of the aerial."

Alberto Pinto Today, Text by Julien Morel

Alberto Pinto Today (Flammarion, $65) puts on view the latest opulent interiors by the celebrated tastemaker, from the grandeur of a Palladian British country house to the sleek comforts of a private jet. Described here as "allergic to repetition," Pinto is both versatile and ruthlessly detailed—he often designs down to pillow embroidery and tea-set patterns. Most apparent is his range, spanning from luxurious wood paneling for an exotic getaway villa in Marrakech to the stark simplicity of a minimalist London apartment.

Antiquaries by Laure Verchère, Photographs by Laziz Hamani

The timeworn oddities and treasures of Parisian flea markets, or les puces, are the subject of Antiquaries (Assouline, $75), a photographic guide that deftly categorizes the riches of the markets' stalls into "The Classic," "The Modern," and "The Unusual." The latter section is the book's showstopper, a phantasmagoria featuring everything from a ceremonial Iroquois headdress to a papier-mâché mummy to a taxidermy kangaroo. Taken together, this survey is a veritable game of I Spy for the experienced antique aficionado and dabbling collector alike.

Collecting Design by Adam Lindemann

Reed Krakoff, Ronald Lauder, and Karl Lagerfeld are just three of the 32 market experts offering insights in the new book Collecting Design (Taschen, $40). Author Adam Lindemann—a major furniture collector in his own right—picks their brains about everything from latest purchases and investment strategies to the current demand for Prouvé and the value of Nakashima.

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